They say every picture tells a story. In this case we have Caroline Smith (#714, Rochford Running Club), Maggie Campbell-Freeman (#129, Southend Flyers) and Becky Clarke (#149, Southend Flyers) having far too much fun in Sunday’s Billericay Striders 10K.

What else can you do in a race held in monsoon conditions but grin and bear it? Not that the extreme weather conditions stopped many of the runners from setting more than decent times, including the race winners Gus Withers (30:59) and Lindsay Colman (37:12), who both narrowly missed the course records.

Paul Whittaker (Southend AC, 30:31) set his record time in 2015, two years after club mate Kerry Holland had run exactly 37 minutes for the women’s race record. Both survived the onslaught from Withers, of Leigh on Sea Striders, and Colman (Southend AC) – with the women’s champion just 12 seconds shy of the previous best time.

The men’s runners-up were Ben Felton (Chelmsford AC, 31:11) and Scott Cousins (Springfield Striders, 31:13). The women’s race was similarly closely matched for the podium places as Sophie Cowper (Rotherham Harriers, 38:30) and Stephanie Migliorini (38:38) claimed those honours.

In fairness, Billericay Striders did well to get the race run at all and their efforts were appreciated by the 626 finishers (in 1:34:37) as seen on the official Facebook page with so many favourable comments and tributes to the course marshals and all the officials.

Results are available via runABC South race listing here

Image courtesy John Wilson on Billericay Striders 10K Facebook